


The Way Home

by terajk



Series: Power Shifts [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Chromatic Character, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-02
Updated: 2011-05-02
Packaged: 2017-10-18 22:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/193752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/terajk/pseuds/terajk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zuko isn't made to run a country.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Way Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Delphi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delphi/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Path Travelled](https://archiveofourown.org/works/45683) by [Delphi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delphi/pseuds/Delphi). 



He thinks Uncle should rule, still.

Zuko isn’t made to run a country. No matter how many trips he takes or laws he signs or generals he pisses off, being Fire Lord never gets any easier. The sense of drowning becomes more familiar, even monotonous, but as soon as he _almost_ believes he _might_ be able to do this, maybe, if given time, the season changes: a broken treaty, a tax riot, an assassination attempt. Uncle (making gentle waves with his body to show where the lightning goes) has the mind for this stuff. He could always swim with the tides.

And Zuko is, frankly, tired of being beaten by the waves. In exile he was rocked by the ship, always, and now he wants the buffeting to stop. He wants to go penguin-sledding with his student (and his sifu—Aang spent weeks teaching him to dance for the wedding), to watch the Polar Lights with Katara and Sokka. He wants to go on a life-changing field trip with Toph without guards trailing after them. He wants his vacations with Mai not to have to coincide with the supervision of rebuilding efforts.

But most of all (yes, most of all), he wants to see the Ember Island Players’ new production with his sister—one not about him—so they can whisper biting commentary instead of just make put-upon faces at each other across their parents. (He’d learned a few things, spending so much time with Katara and Toph. And Sokka). But he had left her years ago, left her alone with Father (it was his fault, all his fault), and he keeps leaving her again and again, even though the servants tell him how much better she is when he’s home.

So when the seasons change, he goes to the Jasmine Dragon to see Uncle in the place where he rules. Still.


End file.
